This secret list – revealed by CNN – may have been a way for administrators to misrepresent the hospital’s performance about actual waiting times for patients. Also troubling is that CNN reported that the director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System knew of, and approved, the secret list, and received a $9,345 bonus last year,The Washington Times reported.

If true, these accusations are despicable. No one who served this country with honor should be left to die in such a way.

The American Legion wants answers and solutions. Among those solutions would be legislation, now in the U.S. House, that would allow the removal of senior VA employees for performance issues.

VA’s Inspector General is now conducting a full investigation, and I am dispatching an American Legion System Worth Saving Task Force team to Phoenix to assess the situation there and, most important, to get the story straight from veterans who use the hospital.

In addition to the families we see in Phoenix, we want to hear from anyone around the nation who has received care – or been denied care due to appointment delays – at any VA facility. To share your experience, please visit the following website: www.legion.org/dyinginline/share.

As the nation’s largest organization of wartime veterans, The American Legion is committed to ensuring that each and every VA-eligible veteran receives high-quality health care in a timely fashion. And preventable deaths at facilities entrusted to provide that care will not be tolerated.

ProMariner

ProMariner

NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE WITH THE VA! MARK MY WORDS... A FEW YEARS FROM NOW WE WILL BE GOING THROUGH ALL THIS AGAIN... THESE DOCTORS AND NURSES ARE ALL HIDING FROM THE REAL MEDICAL PROFESSION THAT IS TO STRESSFUL FOR THEM... SO THEY GO AND HIDE AT THE VA WHERE NOTHING THEY DO WILL EVER COME BACK TO HAUNT THEM!!! THEY ARE THE C AND D STUDENTS AND KNOW FULL WELL THEY ARE NOT PART OF THE BEST... BUT AT THE VA THEY ARE ALL POWERFUL... MORE POWER THEN THEY HAVE EVER HAD IN THEIR LIVES AND THE SAD PART OF IT ALL IS THE VETERAN IS SUFFERING FOR IT ALL... LETS ALL SIGN UP FOR OBAMA CARE SO ALL THE CITIZENS CAN HAVE THE SAME SORT OF HEALTH CARE!!!

ProMariner

I've been fighting my local VA Hospital Togus, Maine for years now! NEVER received ANY assistance from VFW or Legion (both their offices are at my local VA Hospital)... Have walked by the Vet Assistance office door hundreds of times over the years just down the hall from release of information office (its always locked)... If I had not taken my health issues in hand myself and sought out a private sector doctor years ago I would likely now be parallelized on my left side from a massive stroke and unable to communicate or worse dead! On my first visit with my private sector doctor he sent me that same day for sonar gram of my carotid arteries... my right side was 99% clogged... the VA primaries that I had been seeing twice a year for some 20 years never diagnosed this issue!! I've now been dropped from any further visits at my VA hospital likely because I've been making trouble for them and their TOTAL LACK of medical practice... They did a surgery on me to remove kidney stones (I was shown a photograph of THREE (3) kidney stones in my urether between my kidney and bladder... they removed ONE (1) stone and shoved the other two stones back up into my kidney... a few months later I received a letter to report yet again for the same surgery (without any cat scans,etc.) how did they know I still had kidney stones??? Hell they knew because they shoved the other two stones back into my kidney... I called my private sector doctor and he set me up with a private sector urologist that ran tests and found TWO (2) kidney stones in my kidney, where there were none a few months before... My private sector urologist blasted these two stones... and the VA has refused to release the digital photography that I was shown by my VA urologist following my surgery showing THREE (3) stones in my urether between my kidney and bladder... a MEDICAL MALPRACTICE SUITE if I've ever seen one!! They deny, deny, deny and quote VA legal ez... but NEVER fess up!!! I've been waiting for a referal to an ENT specialist for almost a year and a half now... but have also been dropped from any other normal appointments! Have not been seen by anyone at the VA since February/March 2013... Have been waiting so long that I asked my private sector doctor to refer me to private sector ENT specialist whom just this week told me of further hearing loss in my right ear... Have not been seen by VA audiologist since 2008 when they finally fitted me with a hearing aid for my left ear when I had filed clams for hearing loss in 1967-1968 time frame and was denied service connection... they always deny service connection... can't even find an attorney that will sue the VA... they always laugh me out of the office... its a waist of time! My private sector ENT specialist this very week (Monday, June 23, 2014) after having run some 3+ hours of tests and reviewing what I had brought him regarding my hearing loss from the VA said to me, and I quote: "I can't believe the VA has not done any more for you in all these years regarding your substantial and severe hearing loss)... He seems to believe that a minor surgery on my left ear could bring back much of my hearing loss in that ear... The third bone is stationary and needs to be replaced... in his words this is no different than having a cataract eye surgery... I do have nerve damage in both ears... but my left ear could be much better by replacing this third bone in that ear, which is now stationary and not moving sounds properly... another surgery that will cost me out-of-pocket!!! My VA hospital "lab" Togus, Maine has also over the years when I've had my prostrate biopsied twice that I had prostrate cancer... my VA urologist at the time told me in his office in private "I don't trust this lab" but I need you to ask me for a second opinion in order to send out the biopsied samples... I asked him to do so... and BOTH times they came back as negative!!! This doctor shortly after this was let go from the VA system and is now in private practice... I can't help but wonder how many vets have had their prostrate removed and are now wearing a bag??? How many vets have had strokes because the VA doctors have not been able to identify clogged carotids and are now living out their lives in wheel chairs with massive strokes or worse death??? If half of what has been missed and done to my over the years had been done by a private sector doctor I would be a millionaire many times over... THE VA HOSPITAL SYSTEMS I'VE DEALT WITH OVER THE YEARS IN MY OPINION IS KILLING MORE VETS THEY WERE KILLED IN ALL THE WARS WE FOUGHT IN!!!

Matt Damon

The sad thing is, even having the VA healthcare system as a example of government run healthcare. The citizens of the United States want it. Like the Liberals who want communism yet don't look at what happened to the Soviet Union. They see failure and want more of it.

carlisle203

went to v a clinic in Houma,La. to see primary v a provider. dr. told me to see a cardiologist.This was in late feb. Dr. said my symptoms could be my heart. When I called for an appointment to see a cardiologist in New Orleans,La. The nearest date available was June 3rd,2014 over 90 days later.Forced to go to Private cardiologist for treatment. Diagnosis was attrial fibulation.Could not wait for v a.

cowboyup

Same here but at the Tucson AZ VA. Heck while my wife and I were visiting our Son who was deploying to Afghanistan last year. It showed on a VA record which I have in hand, that I was at an appointment at the time of our farewell in California. The Odd thing? When I had called to complain 3 days ago of this painful issue I was having the nurse told my wife that the Hospital Administrator needed me to come in right away. Why would an Administrator who knew nothing what was happening wanting me to go to my clinic and E.R. right away. That freaked me out knowing what happened in Phoenix. That my wife took me to a Local Tucson Hospital who stated I need to follow up with a Surgeon. We now have an appointment very soon. If I were to had gone to the VA there is no telling rather I would had received good quality/quantity of care due to the totally unprofessional way they were desperately trying to get me in I do believe their are great Doctors in the Tucson VA. I also believe Leadership Doc's may be getting "Bonuses/Kick Backs". Including Administration. I feel the VA should not be investigating the VA. These are out right sick ideas from someone at HQ level. F.B.I. should also start Probing immediately. Or better yet Let all Veterans request an F.B.I. Investigation.